Bank Account for Flat Freehold Company

Beckenham_Boy

Does anyone know of a bank account that would suit the funds held by a limited freehold company overseeing a block of flats where the leaseholders own the freehold? Cannot find one! We are in England. We have 16 flats in our block. Each flat owner owns a share of the freehold company. There are 4 resident directors who own their flats. We need a bank account! Advice gratefully received.

flaneurs_lobster

Lived in such a block of flats, bank account for the limited company was provided by Barclays. Don't know if it was of a particular type as such. 

stizy001

Interested to find one too. We've had one for our 6 flats for years with TSB. They've just given us notice of closure in 6 weeks time. No other bank seems interested as it's not a big enough account for them. 
We're getting desperate now.

mrnickw

Hi, I have the same dilemma.  Five of us are looking to buy the freehold of our block.  We’ve made a couple of residents PSCs (persons with significant control) within the companies house register, to enable us to open a business bank account. We just got refused by Starling without any explanation.  Ideally, we wanted one of the free business accounts, but I guess the High Street banks will be better for a face-to-face meeting and explaining our predicament.  If you are in this situation, don’t waste your time with starling. I have two business accounts with them, and find them great, but they are not good for this purpose!  Any other recommendations out there? Has anyone managed to do this recently?  In hope! Nick

WillPS

Have you tried Virgin Money? Although not specific to this situation they're one of the only banks actively marketing their clubs/societies/charities accounts.

That said, I'm not sure why any business bank account is being refused... being a limited company would have been enough I'd have thought. What's the purpose of the company as recorded by Companies House? Are the director registrations up to date and are they the ones applying?

DullGreyGuy

Beckenham_Boy said:

Does anyone know of a bank account that would suit the funds held by a limited freehold company overseeing a block of flats where the leaseholders own the freehold? Cannot find one! We are in England. We have 16 flats in our block. Each flat owner owns a share of the freehold company. There are 4 resident directors who own their flats. We need a bank account! Advice gratefully received.

Are you going to run a sink fund or anything else that will require a trust account?

mrnickw said:

Hi, I have the same dilemma.  Five of us are looking to buy the freehold of our block.  We’ve made a couple of residents PSCs (persons with significant control) within the companies house register, to enable us to open a business bank account. We just got refused by Starling without any explanation.  Ideally, we wanted one of the free business accounts, but I guess the High Street banks will be better for a face-to-face meeting and explaining our predicament.  

Are you not all equal shareholders? a PSC is someone with over 25% of the equity or voting rights. The consequences of adjusting these for the sake of having a PSC is potentially significant for those giving up equity or rights to enable the others to have more. 

penners324

Have a Virgin Money account for this exact same purpose